Benny

given name · Latin script

Meaning, in English: a diminutive of Benn, a short form of Bennet; first attested Ralph Benny 1301 SRY

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/bɛni/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Benny is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • DKDenmark1 in 942(measured from records)
  • SESweden1 in 1K
  • HKHong Kong≈1 in 1.7K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈200,000 people, est.

Sources
447 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 942 (inferred from the name graph)

Denmark

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

a diminutive of Benn, a short form of Bennet; first attested Ralph Benny 1301 SRY

Sources 1

  • A Dictionary of English Surnames

Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.

How Benny is read(measured from records)

Benny is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • English62%

    a diminutive of Benn, a short form of Bennet; first attested Ralph Benny 1301 SRY

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

    (i) Ralph Benny 1301 SRY. A dirainutive of Benn, a short form of Bennel. (ii) Hugh de Benne or Bennef c1201–7, James Beny or Bynne 1321 Black. From Bennie in Alraond (Perth).

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

    An amphetamine tablet.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • Spanish8.6%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Benny in Spanish.

  • Indonesian6.5%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Benny in Indonesian.

  • Danish6.0%

    a male given name borrowed from English; in Scandinavia often associated with Benedict which is traditionally more popular than Benjamin

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Benny counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Benny is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈200,000 est.≈1 in 6.9K—Benny53
US United States#97626,1651 in 13K26KBenny447
PH Philippines—≈15,000 est.≈1 in 7.1K—Benny61
SE Sweden#30210,0271 in 1K10KBenny103
DE Germany#848≈9,000 est.≈1 in 8.9K—Benny144
DK Denmark#1306,2341 in 9426.2KBenny125
HK Hong Kong#191≈4,400 est.≈1 in 1.7K—Benny60
BE Belgium#693≈4,000 est.≈1 in 2.9K1Benny86
SG Singapore#373≈1,600 est.≈1 in 3.9K—Benny95

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Benny is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish given name20 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Mexico, Philippines, Peru

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

    Also written Bënny, Benñy, B̳̿e̳̿n̳̿n̳̿y̳̿, Beńńy, Bénny

  • Indonesian given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Malaysia, Philippines

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written 'Benny, Beñny, Bénny, Bènny, Bęnny

  • Hindi given name8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Bangla

    Also written Benný, Bęnny

  • a separate given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Norway

    Also written B̶e̶n̶n̶y̶, Béññÿ, Beńny

  • a separate name5 spellings in the group

    Also written Benni, ബെന്നി, Beṇṇi

  • Hebrew given name15 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Israel, United States, Romania, India

    Also written בני, Beniy, Beny, בנני, Benni

64 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Benny is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Swedish, Benny är ursprungligen en engelsk smekform till → Benjamin. En känd namnbärare är Benny Andersson (f. 1946), svensk kompositör, medlem av popgruppen ABBA. Namnet användes tidigare även som kvinnonamn. I den finlandssvenska almanackan 20 december.

    as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

  • In German, männl. Vom., englische Koseform von

    as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1850190019502000Benny Leonard, b. 1896Benny Golson, b. 1929Benny Andersson, b. 1946Benny Morris, b. 1948Benny Urquidez, b. 1952Benny Hinn, b. 1952Benny Green, b. 1963Benny Boom, b. 1971Mikael Nilsson, b. 1978Benny Feilhaber, b. 1985

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

InformalHi Benny,

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 81 sources across 46 countries.

Official registers attesting Benny
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202026K#1,360
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—10K#398
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)20206.2K—
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—6.2K#110
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020411#1,360
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)2025293—
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—68#2,097
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)202532—

Reference works 5

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Is Benny a male or female name?
Benny is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Benny mean, and where does it come from?
a diminutive of Benn, a short form of Bennet; first attested Ralph Benny 1301 SRY Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
What are other forms of the name Benny?
In the etymology graph, Ben, Benedito and Bennie are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Benjamin.
In which country does Benny have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 202 thousand people named Benny in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled benny.
Where is Benny most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Benny is densest in Denmark — about 1 in 942 people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
How do you pronounce Benny?
A machine transcription gives /bɛni/ (IPA) for English.
How common is the name Benny?
In the United States, the national register counted 26,165 people named Benny in 2020, about 1 in 13 thousand residents.
How common is Benny compared with other names?
In Denmark, Benny is the 130th most common given name of 23,174 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Benny?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/benny

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Benny” — the 130th most common given name in Denmark. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Benny parses inside a full name →